Hung luminous ceiling with air conditioning ducts



y 1967 M. c. 'ROSENBLATT HUNG LUMINOUS CEILING WITH AIR CONDITIONING DU CTS Filed Oct. 21

ATTORNEYS.

United States Patent 3,322,057 HUNG LUMINOUS CEILING WITH AIR CONDITIONING DUCTS Maurice C. Rosenblatt, 23 W. 73rd St., New York, N.Y. 10023 Filed Oct. 21, 1965, Ser. No. 499,789 14 Claims. (CL- 9840) This invention relates to hung acoustical ceilings and more especially to luminous, acoustical ceilings of the kind disclosed in my Patent No. 3,147,926 dated Sept. 8, 1964.

It is an object of the invention to provide an acoustical ceiling which also includes the air conditioning ducts for a room and at greatly reduced cost. By using parts that are necessary for the acoustical ceiling as parts of the duct work for an air conditioning system, not only is the amount of material substantially reduced, but the labor of installation is also substantially reduced.

It is another object greatly to simplify the massive and intricate horizontal duct work presently employed in airconditioned building construction; and still another object is to make unnecessary the presently employed noise suppressors in the horizontal duct system by utilizing the noise suppression characteristics inherent in the soundabsorbing material which is present in an acoustical ceilmg.

Another, and an important object of the invention, is to provide a saving in fioor-to-fioor height in a multistoried or high-rise building, and floor-to-roof height in a single-story building, by reducing the vertical space required for horizontal air conditioning duct work above the finished ceiling as conventionally constructed.

Still another object is to eliminate the necessity of the presently employed aenarnostats or air diffusers of conventional air conditioning systems. Another object is to provide a simple and inexpensive package ceiling structure which includes the best in modern lighting, advanced acoustical quieting, and air conditioning facilities incorporated directly into a ceiling assembly of high durability and fine appearance and finish.

Other objects, features and advantages of the invention will appear or be pointed out as the description proceeds.

In the drawing, forming a part thereof, in which like reference characters indicate corresponding parts in all the views:

FIGURE 1 is a fragmentary bottom plan view of a portion of a luminous acoustical ceiling having air conditioning ducts incorporated therein, in accordance with this invention;

FIGURE 2 is a greatly enlarged fragmentary, sectional view taken on the line 22 of FIGURE 1;

FIGURE 3 is a fragmentary, enlarged sectional view taken on the 1ine 33 of FIGURE 1, with parts broken away to show sections beyond the plane of the section line 33; and

FIGURE 4 is a sectional view taken on the line 44 of FIGURE 3.

The drawing shows a hung ceiling supported from overhead structure 12 of a building by purlins 14. The purlins 14 are connected with the building structure 12 by hangers 16 which include top brackets 18 imbedded in or secured to the structure 12 by fastenings 20. The hangers have lower brackets 22 which are connected with the top brackets 18 by bolts 24 extending through slots in the brackets to permit adjustment of the brackets in accordance with the intended spacing of the purlin 14 from the building structure 12.

The purlin 14 extends across the entire width of the ceiling and the brackets 18 are at selected modular spacing in accordance with the building specifications. The purlin is accurately leveled by adjusting the upper and 3 ,322,057 Patented May 30, I967 lower brackets 18 and 22 and then tightening the bolts 24 to hold the purlin in position in accordance with conventional practice-well understood in the art.

There are a plurality of purlins 14 at modular spacings and parallel to one another, as shown in dotted lines in FIGURE 1. The ceiling 10 includes supports 30 located at a level below the purlins 14 and extending across the ceiling in directions at right angles to the direction of extent of the purlins. The supports 30 are parallel to one another and at modular spacing and they are constructed to accommodate light diffusers 32 which are preferably made of translucent plastic sheets corrugated to provide the stiffness necessary to span the areas over which these light diffusers extend, and held down by lofting cables 34.

Each of the supports 30 is preferably a perforated metal form. The perforations preferably consist of small openings 33, but the form can be made of expanded metal, and can be made with openings resulting from displacement of metal louvers. It will be understood, there fore, that the support or form 30 illustrated in the drawing is representative of perforated forms.

For supporting the forms 30 from the purlins 14, there are spring clips 40 which are of substantially U-shaped outline with the mid portion of the clip wide enough to span the top surface of the purlin 14. The clips 40 have their free ends bent to form right angle sections 42 which are inserted into openings 33 in the side Walls of the sup ports or forms 30. These clips preferably hold the supports or forms 30 in contact with the bottom surfaces of the purlins. Each of the supports 30 has a bottom 48 and has side walls 50. The bottom 48 is preferably wider than the spacing between the side walls 50 and the metal at the edges of the bottom is folded back to form ledges or shoulders 52 along both sides of each support 30.

In the illustrated construction, the metal is folded back along an are 54; but it is preferably bent upwardly at a sharp right angle at the juncture of the shoulder 52 with the side wall 50. It will be understood that in the preferred construction, the side walls 50, the shoulders 52, the arcs 54 and the bottom 48 are all made of one piece of sheet material.

Within each of the supports 30 there is alayer of soundabsorbing mate-rial 55. This sound-absorbing material is of substantial thickness and preferably extends most of the distance from the bottom 48 to the top of the walls 50.

At modularly spaced locations along the supports 30 there are cross supports 30, as shown in FIGURE 1. These cross supports are preferably similar in construction to the supports 30, but they are of shorter length, each cross support 30 extending only for the distance between successive continuous supports 30. For example, in FIGURE 1 the middle cross support 30 extends only from the location 56 to the location 57. At each of these locations 56 and 57, the cross support 30' is supported by the shoulder 52 of the continuous support 30, as best shown in FIGURE 3.

Since the cross support 30' only reaches to the side of the shoulder 52, it is necessary to provide a bracket 59 between the cross support 30' and the continuous support 30. This bracket 59 fits into the end of the cross support 30 and into the shoulders 52 of the cross support 30' (as shown in dotted lines in FIGURE 2) so that the bracket is held against vertical movement with respect to the cross support 30.

The end of the bracket 59, which extends beyond the end of the cross support 30', is slightly off-set to fit over the shoulder 52 of the continuous support 30 while still leaving the bottom face of the cross support 30' flush withthe bottom face of the continuous support 30. This bracket 59 can be held in place on the shoulder 52 of 3 the continuous support 30 by fastenings 62, as shown in FIGURE 3.

Thus the cross supports 30' and the continuous supports 30 divide the ceiling into a plurality of rectangular areas for receiving diffusers 32. The edge of the diffusers 32 rest on the shoulders 52 of the continuous supports 30, and rest upon corresponding shoulders 52 of the cross supports 30'.

Within each of the cross supports 30' there is insulating material 55 similar to that which is in the supports 30, but in the cross supports 30, the insulating material 55 preferably has a layer of paper or other smooth sheet material 55a bonded to its upper surface to reduce the friction of air flowing across the top of the soundabsorbing material 55. The sound-absorbing material 55 in the cross supports 31), and also in portions of the continuous supports 30, which are in line with the cross supports 30', have interruptions in the insulating material where the bottoms of the cross supports and continuous supports are uncovered so that air can flow through the openings 33 and 33, respectively.

There are ducts 66 formed by placing sheet metal channels over the cross supports 30'. FIGURE 2 shows a sheet metal channel 68a, with its open side facing downward, located over the cross support 30' and resting on the shoulder 52 outside the side walls 50' of the cross support. The sides of the channel 68a can be placed inside of the side walls 50', but it is preferable to place them outside. It is not essential that the channel 68a be fastened to the side walls 50 but it can be fastened, if desired, by fastening means such as sheet metal screws 70.

The channel 68a extends only to the side wall 50 of the next continuous support 30. In order to provide a channel across the top of the continuous support 30, there is another inverted channel 661; which has end edges adjacent to those of the channel 68a, and after the duct work is assembled, tapes 74 with pressure-sealing adhesive are placed over the gaps between the ends of the successive channels 68a and 68b.

At the other side of the continuous support 30, shown in FIGURE 3, there is another inverted channel 680 which abuts the end of the connecting channel 68b to continue the duct 66 along the length of the next cross support 30'. If desired, the channels 68a and 68-0 can be made long enough to meet midway across the width of the continuous support 30 and this eliminates the necessity of the connecting channel 681) but it requires some other changes to accommodate the supporting hangers 16.

The drawing shows a purlin 14 running lengthwise within the duct 66. This locates the purlin where it can not cast a shadow on the light diffusers 32 and it also makes the purlin extend in a direction where it offers a minimum of resistance to the flow of air through the duct 66. It will be evident that if the ducts extended along the continuous supports 30, then the purlins would extend across the ducts at spaced locations and would offer substantial obstructions to the flow of air. The construction illustrated locates the purlin within the same vertical zone as the air duct and thus is responsible for a saving in the height of the space required between the hung ceiling and the building structure 12.

The continuous support 30 which extends transversely of the purlins may be considered as the transversely extending ceiling elements and the cross supports 30 that extend lengthwise of the purlins may be considered the longitudinally extending ceiling elements. The ducts shown in the drawing are over the longitudinally extending ceiling elements; but there need not be ducts over every element, and there can be ducts over portions of the lengths or over the entire lengths of some or all of the transversely extending ceiling elements, if desired. However, the direction of extent of the purlins make this less desirable than the construction illustrated.

FIGURE 3 shows the way in which the channel 68a is cut out at the center to slip end-wise over the hangers 16 which connect the purlin 14 with the overhead structure 12. This cut-out space is shaped as necessary for placing the channel section 68a over the purlin 14 and into position between successive hangers 16 if the channel section 68a is long enough to extend to the next purlin hanger. Sections of the channels 68a and 680 can be made as long or as short as desired, but it is preferable to use long sections rather than to assemble short ones, except where intermediate supports make shorter sections desirable.

For example, the space between the successive continuous supports 30 is quite long in FIGURE 1 and in order to maintain the purlins 14, accurately level, it may be desirable to have a hanger 16 midway between the continuous supports 30, even though there is no continuous support passing under the hanger 16. In such a case, the channel section can be made in two parts which meet at the hanger 16. Various expedients can be used in the field for cutting out sections of duct and then patching them; but it is desirable to have the elements of the ceiling prefabricated as much as possible so as to reduce to a minimum the amount of work to be done at the location where the ceiling is to be installed.

There are lamps supported by sockets 82 secured to the overhead structure 12. These lamps are preferably l-ong, luminescent tubes located symmetrically with respect to the supports 30 and 30 for illuminating the translucent panels 32.

The ceiling is preferably made with a frame of end supports 30c around the side of the room, for ducts similar to those illustrated. One such support 3% is shown at the bottom of FIGURE 1. The duct on the center supports 30 of FIGURE 1 does not communicate with the duct on this end support Site. The ducts on the other supports 30 of FIGURE 1 do communicate with the duct on the support 30c. The duct on the center supports can be connected with an end duct at the opposite end of the room from the support 3136.

Thus alternate ducts can be connected with air supply and air return systems of the air conditioning apparatus. If desired, all of the ceiling ducts can be used for supply or all of them can be used for return. In this respect, the ceiling of this invention can be connected in various ways without any substantial change in the actual structure of the ceiling itself.

FIGURE 1 shows the purlin 14, at the righthand side of the figure, located outside of its air duct 66. Some or all of the air ducts can be offset with respect to the purlins 14 in this same manner and if the purlin is located close to the side of the duct, it does not cast any shadow on the light diffuser. Locating the purlin outside of the air duct simplifies the installation of the duct work, inasmuch as the brackets for the purlins do not have to extend through the tops of the channels forming the air ducts.

The preferred embodiments of the invention have been illustrated and described, but changes and modifications can be made and some features can be used in different combinations without departing from the invention as defined in the claims.

What is claimed is:

1. A luminous ceiling for a room including a plenum with an overhead structure at the top thereof; purlins for connection with the overhead structure, a plurality of horizontally extending ceiling elements for connection with the lower portions of the purlins at a distance below the overhead structure, some of the ceiling elements extending longitudinally of the room and others transversely at substantially the same level, light-transmitting panels supported at their edges by the longitudinal and transverse ceiling elements *and forming with said ceiling elements a hung ceiling for closing off the plenum between the hung ceiling and said overhead structure, means in the plenum for supporting lights above the light-transmitting panels, continuous air ducts extending across the ceiling along the upper side of at least some of the horizontally extending ceiling elements, the ceiling elements below each air duct forming the bottom side of the air duct, openings through the bottom of each horizontally extending element which forms the bottom of an air duct for the discharge of air from the duct and through a part of the ceiling between the light-transmitting panels that are supported by the horizontally extending ceiling elements that form the bottoms of the air ducts, said continuous air ducts formed by the ceiling elements being parallel, and another air duct across one end of the room and into which the parallel air ducts open to connect them With the end duct which serves as a header.

2. The luminous ceiling described in claim 1 characterized by the horizontally extending ceiling elements being channels with open sides facing upward and the ducts being formed by duct channels supported by the underlying horizontally extending ceiling elements, the duct channels having their open sides facing downward and being closed by said underlying horizontally extending ceiling elements, and the end header duct being of similar construction whereby it forms a part of the panel supporting structure of the ceiling.

3. The luminous ceiling described in claim 2 characterized by the horizontally extending ceiling elements having side flanges on which the edges of the light-transmitting panels rest at locations transversely beyond the sides of the duct channel.

4. The luminous ceiling described in claim 2 characterized by the sides of the horizontally extending ceiling element channel and the sides of the duct channel overlap one another to hold the duct channel against transverse displacement.

5. The luminous ceiling described in claim 1 characterized by the ceiling being located in a room having side walls and some of the horizontally extending ceiling elements being located along side and end walls of the room, and at least some of the ceiling elements along the walls forming the header duct at one end of the room and a similar header duct at the opposite end of the room.

6. The luminous ceiling described in claim 1 characterized by others of the horizontally extending ceiling elements extending transversely and at right angles to the longitudinally extending ceiling elements having the continuous ducts thereon, and at least one of the transversely extending ceiling elements having a discontinuous inverted channel thereon between each of the air ducts and forming with the transversely extending element another air duct for distributing air.

7. The luminous ceiling described in claim 6 characterized by the duct of the longitudinally extending ceiling element having an opening through its side wall communicating with the duct of transversely extending ceiling element.

8. The luminous ceiling described in claim 1 characterized by some of the horizontally extending ceiling elements extending longitudinally and parallel to one another and others of the horizontally extending ceiling elements extending transversely substantially normal to the first longitudinally extending ceiling elements and parallel to one another, brackets supporting longitudinally extending elements from the purlins, and means supporting the transversely extending elements from the longitudinally extending ceiling elements, said purlins that support a longitudinally-extending element being located in the air duct that is on that longitudinally extending element.

9. A luminous ceiling including purlins for connection with an overhead structure, a plurality of horizontally extending ceiling elements for connection with the lower portions of the purlins at a distance below the overhead structure, light-transmitting panels supported at their opposite edges by the longitudinal ceiling elements and forming with said longitudinal ceiling elements a hung ceiling for closing off a plenum between the hung ceiling and said overhead structure and in which lights can be located above the light-transmitting panels, air ducts extending along the upper side of at least some of the horizontally extending ceiling elements, the ceiling elements below each air duct forming the bottom side of the air duct, openings through the bottom of each horizontally extending element which forms the bottom of an air duct for the discharge of air from the duct and through a part of the ceiling between the light-transmitting panels that are supported by the horizontally extending ceiling elements that form the bottoms of the air ducts, characterized by some of the horizontally extending ceiling elements extending longitudinally and parallel to one another and others of the horizontally extending ceiling elements extending transversely substantially normal to the first longitudinally extending ceiling elements and parallel to one another, brackets supporting longitudinally extending elements from the purlins, and means supporting the transversely extending elements from the longitudinally extending ceiling elements, and further characterized by the longitudinally extending ceiling elements being continuous across the ceiling and the transversely extending ceiling elements being at substantially the same level as the longitudinally extending ceiling elements but being discontinuous and having lengths that extend from one longitudinal ceiling element to the next and means connecting the ends of the transversely extending ceiling elements to adjacent longitudinally extending ceiling elements, and further characterized by the ducts extending along the transversely extending ceiling elements and having channel sections with the open side of the sections facing downward and forming with the transversely extending ceiling elements, and with the longitudinally extending ceiling elements, where the channel sections cross the latter, the air ducts for the ceiling, the sides of the channel sections being cut out to provide clearance for sides of the longitudinally extend-- ing ceiling elements Where the duct passes over said longitudinally extending ceiling elements.

10. The luminous ceiling described in claim 9 characterized by the sections of channel facing downward including sections extending from one longitudinally extending ceiling element to the next and including also a short connecting section extending across the width of the longitudinally extending ceiling element, and means connecting the short connecting section with the other sections and in alignment with them.

11. An acoustical luminous ceiling construction including hangers extending down from an overhead structure, a plurality of spaced-apart and parallel purlins, metal frames of sheet material under the purlins and extending transversely of the purlins, each of the metal frames being of generally channel cross section with a relatively wide, horizontally extending bottom and low upstanding side walls, the channel frames being of much greater width than height and of much greater length than Width, the bottom being perforated and having at least 20% of its area open and each of the side walls having at least one row of perforations therethrough, sound absorbing material within the channel in position to absorb sound waves that enter the channel through the perforations in the bottom of the channel, the sheet material of the bottom of the channel extending horizontally beyond the side walls of the channel at both sides thereof and then extending back again immediately above the level of the bottom and joining with the lower ends of the side walls to form flanges for supporting light-transmitting panels, light-transmitting panels extending across the space between successive frames and supported by said flanges with the lighttransmitting panels extending horizontally and at approximately the same level as the perforated bottom Walls of the frames, at least two clips above the level of the lighttransmitting panels and spaced from one another lengthwise of each purlin and transversely of the chanel and extending into perforations in the'side walls to support each frame from that purlin, an inverted channel with the open side of the channel closed by one of said metal frames of channel cross section and forming with said metal frame an air duct, and the sound-absorbing material having interruptions at locations where air is to be discharged from the duct through said perforations.

12. The acoustical luminous ceiling construction described in claim 11 characterized by the open area of the bottom and side walls of the channels resulting from the displaced portions of the sheet metal being between 20% and 35% of the total area of the sheet from which the channel is made.

13. A luminous ceiling including purlins for connection with an overhead structure, a plurality of horizontally extending ceiling elements for connection with the lower portions of the purlins at a distance below the overhead structure, light-transmitting panels supported at their opposite edges by the longitudinal ceiling elements and forming with said longitudinal ceiling elements a hung ceiling for closing off a plenum between the hung ceiling and said overhead structure and in which lights can be located above the light-transmitting panels, air ducts extending ,along the upper side of at least some of the horizontally extending ceiling elements, the ceiling elements below each air duct forming the bottom side of the air duct, openings through the bottom of each horizontally extending element which forms the bottom of an air duct for the discharge of air from the duct and through a part of the ceiling between the light transmitting panels that are supported by the horizontally extending ceiling elements that form the bottoms of the air ducts, characterized by some of the horizontally extending ceiling elements extending longitudinally and parallel to one another and others of the horizontally extending ceiling elements extending longitudinally extending ceiling elements, and further characterized by all of the longitudinally and transversely extending ceiling elements having perforated bottom walls and having a layer of acoustical material supported by said bottom walls, there being interruptions in the acoustical material at the locations where air is to be discharged from the air ducts through the ceiling.

14. An acoustical luminous ceiling construction includ ing hangers extending down from an overhead structure, a plurality of spaced-apart and parallel purlins, metal frames of sheet material under the purlins and extending transversely of the purlins, each of the metal frames being of generally channel cross section with a relatively wide, horizontally extending bottom and low upstanding side walls, the channel frames being of much greater width than height and of much greater length than width, the bottom being perforated and each of the side walls having perforations therethrough, sound absorbing material within the channel in position to absorb sound waves that enter the channel through the perforations in the bottom of the channel, flanges extending from the sides of the channel frames for supporting light-transmitting panels, lighttransmitting panels extending across the space between successive frames and supported by said flanges with the light-transmitting panels extending horizontally and at approximately the same level as the perforated bottom walls of the frame, an inverted channel with the open side of the channel closed by one of said metal frames of channel cross section and forming with said metal frame an air duct, and the sound-absorbing material having interruptions at locations where air is to be discharged from the duct through said perforations.

References Cited UNITED STATES PATENTS 2,833,199 5/1958 Wakefield 9840 3,001,464 9/1961 Moore 9840 3,147,926 9/1964 Rosenblatt 181-33 X ROBERT A. OLEARY, Primary Examiner.

W. E. WAYNER, Assistant Examiner. 

1. A LUMINOUS CEILING FOR A ROOM INCLUDING A PLENUM WITH AN OVERHEAD STRUCTURE AT THE TOP THEREOF; PURLINS FOR CONNECTION WITH THE OVERHEAD STRUCTURE, A PLURALITY OF HORIZONTALLY EXTENDING CEILING ELEMENTS FOR CONNECTION WITH THE LOWER PORTIONS OF THE PURLINS AT A DISTANCE BELOW THE OVERHEAD STRUCTURE, SOME OF THE CEILING ELEMENTS EXTENDING LONGITUDINALLY OF THE ROOM AND OTHERS TRANSVERSELY AT SUBSTANTIALLY THE SAME LEVEL, LIGHT-TRANSMITTING PANELS SUPPORTED AT THEIR EDGES BY THE LONGITUDINAL AND TRANSVERSE CEILING ELEMENTS AND FORMING WITH SAID CEILING ELEMENTS A HUNG CEILING FOR CLOSING OFF THE PLENUM BETWEEN THE HUNG CEILING AND SAID OVERHEAD STRUCTURE, MEANS IN THE PLENUM FOR SUPPORTING LIGHTS ABOVE THE LIGHT-TRANSMITTING PANELS, CONTINUOUS AIR DUCTS EXTENDING ACROSS THE CEILING ALONG THE UPPER SIDE OF AT LEAST SOME OF THE HORIZONTALLY EXTENDING CEILING ELEMENTS, THE CEILING ELEMENTS BELOW EACH AIR DUCT FORMING THE BOTTOM SIDE OF THE AIR DUCT, OPENINGS THROUGH THE BOTTOM OF EACH HORIZONTALLY EXTENDING ELEMENT WHICH FORMS THE BOTTOM OF AN AIR DUCT FOR THE DISCHARGE OF AIR FROM THE DUCT AND THROUGH A PART OF THE CEILING BETWEEN THE LIGHT-TRANSMITTING PANELS THAT ARE SUPPORTED BY THE HORIZONTALLY EXTENDING CEILING ELEMENTS THAT FROM THE BOTTOMS OF THE AIR DUCTS, SAID CONTINUOUS AIR DUCTS FORMED BY THE CEILING ELEMENTS BEING PARALLEL, AND ANOTHER AIR DUCT ACROSS ONE END OF THE ROOM AND INTO WHICH THE PARALLEL AIR DUCTS OPEN TO CONNECT THEM WITH THE END DUCT WHICH SERVES AS A HEADER. 